B y M . L . H A M L I N
May, 1914 T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y 429 administration of a railway line, by enabling more work to be
done per head, checks temporarily rates of promotion. Hitherto, undoubtedly, there has been somewhat too great a tendency to substitute regulations for explanations, and to adopt generally the attitude of the Roman centurion. Direct access to officers or directors with powers of initiative may do much to make matters work more smoothly, and many of the companies are proceeding on these lines. On the Great Eastern Railway, for example, the company is represented on the Conciliation Board by a special director, and a somewhat similar policy is being pursued by other lines. Much of the trouble experienced in the past has been due to a feeling on the part of the men that the companies were evading the terms of various awards. It will be the business of these special diplomatists to remove such apprehensions before matters come to a crisis.”
D a te V essel B a rre ls
A p ril 28 H y a n t h e s ... ___ 150 M a y 25 R ic h a r d W . C l a r k ... . . . . 4 ,1 5 0 J u n e 1 B a r k A lic e K n o w le s ... ____ 65 0 J u n e 29 B r ig D a i s y ... ____ 375 J u ly 14 S e h r. E lle n A . S w i f t ... ____ 45 0 A u g u s t 8 S e h r . A . W . N ic h o ls o n ... ____ 55 0 A u g u st 9 B a r k C h a s . W . M o r g a n ... ____ 1 ,2 0 0 A u g u st 15 S e h r . J o h n R . M a n t a ... 200 S e p te m b e r 4 B a r k G a y H e a d ... ____ 9 0 0 O c to b e r 25 S e h r. E . R . S m i t h ... . . . . 4 ,5 5 5 N ovem ber* 13 S e h r . R ic h a r d W . C l a r k ... ___ 4 ,4 2 5 N o v e m b e r 13 S t r . B e r l in ... ____ 1 ,4 8 5
BY-PRODUCT PR O D U CER S IN GER M AN Y Several German companies have had in operation for some time by-product producer-gas power plants built according to a system invented by an Englishman, A. H. Lymn. The Journal of Gas Lighting and Water Supply, 97 (1914), 715, says:
A large plant on this principle has been in operation with
highly successful results for three years at the works of the Zell- stoff-fabrik Waldhof, Mannhein (a Company having a capital of from $15,000,000 to $20,000,000) and another plant on Mr.
Lymn's system has been built by his German licensees, Messrs.
Ehrliardt and Sehmer, for the Badisclie Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik of Ludwigshafen-Rhein— probably the largest chemical works in the world. It is interesting for us to be able to add that Mr.
Lymn’s new and improved system has now been adopted by the German Government for their central power station at Heinitz. This plant is at first being constructed for 3000 K.W ., but it is intended to double it later on. It will supply gas to large engines built by Messrs. Ehrhardt and Sehner.”
IM P O R T S OF SPER M OIL D UR IN G 1 9 1 3
According to the Oil, Paint and Drug annual report the importations of sperm oil during 1913 were as follows:
T o t a l ... 1 9 ,0 9 0 Note— On December 31st, the stocks of unsold sperm oil in New Bedford amounted to 1,100 barrels.
POTASH SHIPM ENTS DURING 19 x 4
Consul-General R. P. Skinner, Berlin, Germany, states that the executive authorities of the German Potash Syndicate have resolved to authorize the following deliveries for domestic and foreign consumption during the year 1914 in accordance with the provisions of the potash-syndicate law (the amounts being in metric tons of pure potash, K 20 ) :
F o r d o m e s - F o r fo re ig n ti c c o n - c o n s u m p - s u m p tio n tio n
% M e tr ic to n s Carnallite w ith a t lea st 9 per ce n t and less than
12 per cent KiO... 7 ,1 0 0 100 Raw salts w ith 12 to 15 per ce n t KîO ... 3 3 9 ,0 0 0 1 4 1 ,1 0 0 F e rtiliz e r s a lts w ith 20 t o 22 p e r c e n t K aO 2 ,3 0 0 4 8 ,3 0 0 Fertilizer salts w ith 30 to 32 per ce n t K jO 4 ,0 0 0 1 6 ,0 0 0 Fertilizer salts w ith 4 0 to 42 p er ce n t K2O , in
cluding potash fertilizer w ith 3 8 p er ce n t
K jO ... 2 1 1 ,3 0 0 6 7 ,0 0 0 Chloride of p o ta sh ... 6 9 ,7 0 0 1 8 7 ,5 0 0 S u lfate of p o ta s h w ith m o re t h a n 42 p e r c e n t
K > 0 ... 1 ,7 0 0 5 5 ,0 0 0 Sulfate of p otash -m agn esia... 200 1 5 ,0 0 0 T o t a l ... 6 3 5 ,3 0 0 5 3 1 ,3 0 0 Grand to ta l... 1 , 166,600
GERMAN FOREIGN TRADE IN IRON
In the year 1913 Germany’s foreign trade in iron, like her foreign trade as a whole, showed a considerable increase. Technik und Wirthschaft, 7 (1914), 213, gives the following data:
Exports
1912 1913
I r o n a n d ir o n p r o d u c t s ... $ 2 9 6 ,4 5 0 ,0 0 0 $ 3 3 4 ,8 0 0 ,0 0 0 M a c h i n e r y ... 1 5 7 ,5 7 5 ,0 0 0 16 9 ,6 0 0 ,0 0 0 T o t a l s ... $ 4 5 4 ,0 2 5 ,0 0 0 $ 5 0 4 ,4 0 0 ,0 0 0
Imports
1912 1913
I r o n a n d ir o n p r o d u c t s ... $ 2 7 ,5 5 0 ,0 0 0 $ 2 6 ,0 2 5 ,0 0 0 M a c h i n e r y ... 1 9 ,2 5 0 ,0 0 0 2 0 ,2 2 5 ,0 0 0 T o t a l s ... $ 4 6 ,8 0 0 ,0 0 0 $ 4 6 ,2 5 0 ,0 0 0
In weight, the iron exports, exclusive of machinery, reached the figure of 6,500,000 tons, while the total output of iron in Ger
many and Luxemburg was 19,100,000 tons (metric). The amount exported was 7.5 per cent more than in 1912, but the value of the exports showed an increase of 13 per cent. The reason for this is that the exportation of the cheaper forms of iron fell off
Exports op Iron and Iron Products
Y e a r M e tr ic to n s
1 9 1 1 ... 5 ,3 8 0 ,0 0 0 191 2 ... 6 ,0 4 2 ,0 0 0 191 3 ... 6 ,4 9 7 ,0 0 0
in 1913, while that of finished products increased 15 to 17 per cent. The proportion of raw iron to the total iron export was 13.2 per cent and shows a condition similar to that in Great Britain, where the proportion of raw iron to the total iron ex
ported sank from 25.7 per cent in 1912 to 22.2 per cent in 1913.
In the following table Germany’s iron imports and exports for the last two years are classified in four groups; it will be seen here that the amount of machinery exported is seven times as great as that imported, a great increase over 1900, when the exports were only two and a half times the imports.
Imports Exports
1912 1913 1912 1913
R a w iro n , s c r a p , e tc . ( m e tr ic to n s ) 4 9 3 ,0 0 0 4 5 1 ,0 0 0 1 ,9 1 1 ,0 0 0 1 ,7 5 4 ,0 0 0 R o llin g m ills ’ p r o d u c t s ... 1 18,000 12 5 ,0 01) 3 .3 0 4 ,0 0 0 3 ,8 0 1 ,0 0 0 M a c h i n e r y ... 7 8 ,0 0 0 8 8 ,0 0 0 5 3 7 ,0 0 0 5 9 4 .0 0 0 O th e r p r o d u c t s ... 6 3 ,0 0 0 4 2 ,0 0 0 8 0 6 .0 0 0 9 4 3 ,0 0 0
It is noteworthy that the exports to Great Britain, British East Indies, East Asia and South America have more than made up for the falling off of the exports to other European countries;
even the small amount exported to the United States was doubled.
The following table shows the destinations and amounts of the greater part of the iron exported:
1910 1912 1913
G r e a t B r i t a i n ... 9 1 0 ,0 0 0 1 ,0 2 4 ,0 0 0 1 ,2 0 8 ,0 0 0 B e lg iu m ... 7 5 3 ,0 0 0 7 9 8 ,0 0 0 6 4 8 ,0 0 0 N e t h e r l a n d s ... 3 8 6 ,0 0 0 5 5 5 ,0 0 0 5 9 5 ,0 0 0 B r a z il a n d A r g e n tin e R e p u b l ic ... 3 9 5 ,0 0 0 3 8 1 ,0 0 0 4 7 1 ,0 0 0 S w i tz e r la n d ... 2 6 2 ,0 0 0 3 5 6 ,0 0 0 3 3 3 .0 0 0
430 T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y V ol. 6, No. 5 N A T U R A L G A S IN C A N A D A
Remarkable progress is reported for 1913 by the Canadian Western Natural Gas, Light, Heat and Power Co. According to the Journal of Gas Lighting and Water Supply, 97 (1914), 639, the daily consumption amounts to some 26,000,000 cu. ft., which is paid for at the rate of 15 cents per 1000. The distri
bution has a capacity of 33,000,000 cu. ft. daily, but enlarge
ments are in contemplation, since 500 consumers are being added monthly. The pressure in the borings is over 600 lbs. per sq.
in., and this is practically as great as when the well was first started. It may, therefore, be assumed that the supply will last for some years. The total capital of the company at the end of 1913 amounted to more than $9,747,000.
T A R A N D B E N Z O L P R IC E S
» The Journal of Gas Lighting and Water Supply, 97 (1914), 640, quotes an article in the Journal fur Gasbeleuchtung, in which appears a diagram (drawn up by Professor Dr. Ost) showing the remarkable fluctuations in the prices of tar and benzol be
tween the years 1S80 and 1905. The price of a ton of tar in 1880 was about 30 marks; in 1883’ it had risen to 55; in 1S87 it was down to about 16; in 1892 it was up to 40 again; from 1889 to 1905 it was round about 20 marks. The variations in the benzol curve are even more remarkable. Between 1885 and 1886 the price of 100 kg. dropped from 400 marks to 40, owing to the advent of benzol washing in coke-oven practice. In 1890 it again rose to 110 marks; in 1S95 it was below 27; and in the next year it shot up to 75 again. From 1899 to 1905 it was fairly steady round about 20 marks. The prices in the London market last week were about 32 marks per ton of tar, and 27 to 28 marks per 100 kg. for benzol.
D O M E S T I C L I G H T I N G F I F T Y Y E A R S A G O The Journal of Gas Lighting and Water Supply, 97 (1914), 516, quotes the following paragraph from The Builder for Feb.
20, 1864:
"O f late, in provincial towns, and even in some villages, gas
lights have been introduced into the dwellings of the working classes— a practice which adds to the cheerfulness of homes and is not more expensive than candles. In Manchester most new houses, of even the third class, have gas-pipes laid 011 at the time of building. In London this is not so generally done, even in new houses of this class; and to lay the pipes to old ones, by re
opening the pavements, is a seldom recurring art. Of late, however, lamps constructed for the use of paraffin or petroleum and colza oils are coming much into use in the houses of the work
ing classes; and it is stated that in the longest days of winter, when light is needed from between four and five o’clock p. m.
till between ten and eleven, and also in the morning, the cost is only about 8d. a week. Common candles would come to about a shilling, while the paraffin gives three or four times the volume of light that could be obtained from candles for that money.”
G A S E S IN IR O N A N D S T E E L
An investigation by W. Herwig, Stahl und Eiseti, 33, 1721, on the gas contained in blisters formed on steel plates during rolling and annealing is quoted in the Journal of Gas Lighting and Water Supply, 97 (1914), 502. This gas consists chiefly of nitrogen. The gases evolved during the solidification of iron immediately after tapping from the blast-furnace include large quantities of hydrogen and carbon monoxide; white iron contains more hydrogen, and hot-blast gray iron more carbon monoxide.
B y heating in a current of hydrogen, the nitrogen in steel turn
ings was reduced from 0.022 to 0.006 per cent; and, though it was not increased by heating in a current of nitrogen, yet from a mixture of nitrogen and hydrogen in equal proportions a steel was obtained, in one case with as much as 0.052 per cent of nitrogen. The author considered that similar action takes
place in the converter. A steel containing 0.04 per cent of nitro
gen, when tested, broke without elongation, but was improved by prolonged annealing.
T H E C IN E M A T O G R A P H IN R E S E A R C H
In an extremely interesting lecture before the Frankisch-Ober- pfalzischer Section of the Verein deutscher Ingenieure [Zeit- schrift des Ver. deui, Ing., 58 (1914), 268], Dr.-Ing. Hanz Goetz outlined the part cinematography had played in scientific and technical research and suggested some of the things that may be expected of it in the future. After an introduction giving sta
tistics, describing apparatus and outlining the history of the invention, the lecture takes up the position of moving picture photography among the means of reproducing phenomena to the census. It differs from other means in that it correlates two of the basic quantities that physics deals with, time and extension in space.
The most obvious way in which the cinematograph may act as an aid to science is in recording rare phenomena such as scenes in the life of seldom seen or difficultly accessible animals, unusual surgical operations, etc.-— fields in which considerable success has been attained. Its usefulness only begins here, how
ever. Just as the scale of objects may be varied when they are represented graphically, so the time scale of actions may be changed when they are represented by the cinematograph.
By an increase in speed, Professor PfefTer, of Leipzig, has been able to reproduce in three minutes a ten-day period of growth of a horse-chestnut twig; pictures for this reproduction were taken at five minute intervals. A large field for the study of the growth of both plants and animals is thus opened up. Just as slow motions can be hastened so that it is possible to see the total effect in a truer perspective, so it is possible to retard and analyze quick movements, and the limits are only those of the speed with which the pictures can be taken. With the most re
fined mechanical devices it is not possible to take more than 250 pictures per second, but by illuminating the moving object with regularly succeeding electric sparks and photographing on a film moving continuously rather than intermittently, it was found possible to increase the number of exposures to 2000 per second.
Bull has studied the flight of insects in this manner.
From an engineering point of view the cinematograph has been most useful in studying projectiles and their effect on armor plate. Much higher frequencies had to be used than Bull ob
tained, and the apparatus employed differed from his in not using a mechanical interrupter; in series with the illuminating spark-gap was a large condenser, and in parallel with it a small one; the large condenser is charged by an induction machine, and when it is discharged the small condenser is alternately charged and discharged across the gap. The period of the alternations can be judged with fair accuracy by the tone.
Since an explosion can take place in the five-thousandth part of a second, the speed of nine to fifty thousand exposures per second, obtained by this method, is sufficient to furnish inter
esting results. Since it is obviously impossible to have the camera near the object photographed,- a special arrangement is used.
The cinematograph can also be used for making quantitative measurements of movements. The fall of a body has been studied by photographing on the same film the falling object and the hand of a chronograph, and in the same way the action of a steam hammer has been timed.
In these lines the cinematograph has just begun to be de
veloped, and offers great possibilities in solving problems deal
ing with time and space in fields as wide apart as engineering and biology, and makes possible the study of motions so slow that it has hitherto been impossible to form conception of their whole meaning, or so fast that it has been almost impossible to form any conception of them at all.
M ay, 1914 T H E J O U R N A L O F I N D U S T R I A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G C H E M I S T R Y 431 in this increase; though the establishment of several factories in Japan, financed chiefly by foreign capital, has greatly cut down the importation of some substances such as formalin and acctic and salicylic acids. On January 1, 1911, there were, in Japan, 470 factories producing chemicals or related products;
of these 159 manufactured explosives, 83 oils and waxes, 77 pharmaceutical products, 21 rubber, 13 toilet preparations, 30 soaps. 5 dyes, 49 fertilizers, and 33 were unclassified in the official statistics. Germany and England have furnished the larger part of the imports, but in the last three years American the country. This lack is supplied partly by importation, partly by the use of native grasses, and largely by the use of cotton rags, the supply of which may be judged from the fact that in India over 400,000 tons of cotton goods are used annually. Other raw materials arc jute and hemp, and experiments are now being made with bamboo and bagasse, so far without practical results.